Located on the Cornell Tech campus in New York City, the new Graduate Roosevelt Island hotel sports educational themes, with some specific Big Red homages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bright lobby is covered in 5,000 square feet of books\u2014mostly mathematics and medical reference texts, in a nod to Weill Cornell Medicine just across the East River\u2014along its walls and up to the high ceiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keycards to guest rooms are fashioned after student IDs, each featuring the yearbook photo of one of four alums with ties to the city (Ruth Bader Ginsburg \u201954, Howard Milstein \u201973, Toni Morrison, MA \u201955, and Andrew Tisch \u201971).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/IMG_1751-A-1024x683.jpg\")
The 18-story, 224-room property, which opened last June, is the first-ever hotel on Roosevelt Island. Like the more than two dozen others in the Graduate chain, many of which are located in college towns and cities, it has scholarly-themed d\u00e9cor: the guest rooms are accented with collegiate plaid, and the \u201cdo not disturb\u201d door hangers, which are shaped like pennants, are emblazoned with the word \u201cSTUDYING\u201d and a cartoon of a grad in cap and gown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur brand is rooted in storytelling and nostalgia,\u201d notes Hotelie Daniel Schor \u201904, a partner at AJ Capital Partners, Graduate\u2019s Nashville-based management firm, adding that working on the Roosevelt Island project was a \u201cfull-circle moment\u201d that was particularly resonant for him: \u201cIt\u2019s an honor to see elements of your own college experience and many of the famous alums and traditions brought to life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Another Hotelie, David Rochefort \u201910, was Graduate\u2019s president until last summer; he\u2019s now a partner at Castle Peak Holdings.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n The building offers dramatic views of Manhattan\u2019s East Side, the East River, the 59th Street Bridge, and Queens\u2014most notably in its aptly named 18th-floor Panorama Room, which is an event space and rooftop bar with an outdoor wrap-around terrace. Guest rooms, meeting rooms, and event rooms also offer striking vistas of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Graduate\u2019s other notable design elements include a 12-foot-high sculpture by Chicago-based artist Hebru Brantley. It depicts a character named \u201cFlyboy\u201d\u2014wearing aviator goggles and holding a giant light bulb over the front desk\u2014that was inspired by the Tuskegee Airmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hotel, which has already become something of an extension of the adjacent Tech campus, aims to be a locus for Cornellians in New York City\u2014hosting Big Red groups, alumni events, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Top image: The Graduate Roosevelt Island hotel’s front desk is watched over by \u201cFlyboy.\u201d (Photo by Steve Freihon Photography)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Published: December 20, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n Collegiate themes include \u2018student ID\u2019 key cards and textbook d\u00e9cor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":5023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"alumni_hub_syml_posts":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[227],"tags":[],"cornell_year_post":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-5026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-beyond"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/Copy-of-210209_Graduate_Roosevelt9340-A-1024x576.jpg\")
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